


Misgivings and other Misunderstandings

by J_Flattermann



Category: The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fellowship of the Ring, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Flattermann/pseuds/J_Flattermann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aragon and Boromir reading the situation wrongly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misgivings and other Misunderstandings

 Title:  ** _Misgivings and other misunderstandings_**

 

Pairing: Aragorn / Boromir

Also: the rest of the Fellowship

Genre: Slash

Rating: PG-13

Beta'ed by [](http://ingrid44.livejournal.com/profile)[ **ingrid44** *](http://ingrid44.livejournal.com/). Thanks dear friend for you help as ever.

Disclaimer: Pure fiction. The characters all belong to the JRR Tolkien estate. No copyright infringement intended. 

Word Count: 3107

 

 

“How can you be around these elves all the time? They are such impossible creatures. Do they not know that there is a world outside these woods? A world that is struggling for survival?” Boromir was fuming. 

The grey eyes of the Ranger he'd addressed rested on him calmly. But the lips were curled into a smile. “You seem toforget that they are nearly immortal. Their concerns are quite different from ours. They do not feel the pressure of time passing.” Boromir snorted his disgust. “Shallow. Elves are shallow. Just look at him.” Boromir pointed at the slim figure leaning over one of the pools in the brook. Examing his long golden blond hair and repairing the complicated braid work where it had loosened. “Shallow.” Boromir growled; got up and marched off. 

Aragorn got up as well to make his way to the fire to refill his mug. Halfway there he was met by the tall slim elf, who had just a minute ago tended to the braids in his long hair. “What is eating him?” The elf asked, jerking his head in the direction in which Boromir had just stomped off. “Never mind, my brother. The man is in a bad mood. He thinks to much, and his head is not made for it.” Aragorn said receiving a grin and a chuckle from the elf. 

“Ahem, hmm, hmm.” Gandalf cleared his throat making the two aware that he had overheard their conversation. Aragorn sighed. “Best I go after him. Make sure he doesn't wander to far off.” He sighed again, leaving his mug by the fireplace. Before he followed Boromir he stopped at the place where the Hobbits had built their nestlike beds. Each of them covered by their coats huddled together for warmth. It took him a moment to make out Merry in this ball of coats, furry feet and intertwined arms. He ruffled through Merry's ginger locks until the Hobbit opened his eyes sleepily. “Strider?! What is it? Are we under attack?” Merry was just about to jump up when Aragorn pushed him back, smiling. “No, Merry. I just wanted to ask you if you could spare some of your pipe weed and maybe a pipe as well?” Merry rubbed his eyes and then looked into Aragorn's face. He started to grin. “Notice I am not asking why you need it.” He said chuckling. “Over in my pack there is weed and a spare pipe. Help yourself.” With these words he nestled back down cuddling close to his cousin Pippin. “What did Strider want?” Pippin murmured sleepily. “Pipe and weed.” Merry answered. “Go back to sleep, Pip. We will think about it tomorrow.” “Hmm. 'Kay.” 

Aragorn dug into Merry's pack and soon found the items he had been looking for. Carefully stepping over Gimli so as not to wake him, he left the camp in the direction Boromir had gone earlier.

The man had left an easy track to follow; broken twigs and trampled grass. Wandering in a half circle he had made his way down to the brook again. There in the half shadow of the moonlit trees Aragorn found Boromir sitting at the shore throwing pebbles into the water. 

Aragorn's silent approach had gone unnoticed by the man who was startled, jumped to his feet and reached for his sword just as Aragorn spoke. “It will not help. Throwing pebbles. I think I can offer a better past time and one that helps thinking as well. At least it does that for me.” Boromir settled down on his stone seat again and growled in response. Aragorn went looking for another stone to use and finally finding one dragged it to sit next to the man from Gondor. He reached into his pocket and produced the spare pipe. Nudging Boromir's arm he offered him the pipe whilst fumbling in his pocket for his own and the weed. He filled his pipe and handed the pouch over to Boromir who did likewise. Patting his coat and shirt pockets Aragorn cursed. “I've forgot to bring a light.” He said. Boromir grinned, got up and kicked at the stones at the edge of the brook. Finally he bent over to pick up two pebbles. Aragorn's gaze rested fixed on the firm bottom in full display in the light of the moon. 'Thank god for a full moon.' He thought smiling. 'Otherwise I would have missed this exquisite display.' Meanwhile Boromir wandered off to the trees and searched around their trunks. 'He's looking for lichen.' Aragorn thought. 

  


With a grunt Boromir tore some bark off the tree and returned to Aragorn and his own stone seat. There he placed the bark with the lichen between his feet and smacked the two pebbles together until sparks flew. Boromir directed the sparks so that they landed on the lichen. Aragorn had gone to his knees and started to gently blow on the makings to turn the sparks into flames. Finally the two succeeded.

Aragorn still on all fours looked up into the Gondorian's face and giggled “I hope nobody is watching us. This position could very easily be misunderstood.” Boromir blushed and hoped that the moonlight wasn't shining into his face just now. Instead he picked up the smouldering bark, blew on it twice and lit his pipe before handing the bark over to Aragorn. 

They sat there in silence for a while until Boromir spoke. “How are the little ones faring?” “They are asleep. Cuddled up into a ball one can hardly tell one from the other.” Aragorn said smiling. “It must be hard for them.” Boromir mused, “Mithrandir is setting a hell of a pace. I can hear the dwarf panting throughout the day. How much harder must it be for the little ones.” 

Aragorn made a humming noise whilst thinking and Boromir hid the grin forming on his lips by sucking hard on his pipe. Aragorn himself took two or three draws on his own puffing out the smoke in neat little rings. “Hmm, I never thought of that. Their legs are so much smaller it means that they have to run to maintain the speed of a normal sized man.” He saw from the corner of his eye how Boromir's head bobbed up and down in agreement. 

They fell silent again and Aragorn made a mental note to speak to Gandalf about this. They couldn't risk wearing out the Ringbearer before they were even close to their target. He knew of course why Gandalf was in such a hurry and he knew as well that Boromir knew. But the Gondorian had a point here. If the dwarf was panting throughout their march, it must be harder for the Hobbits as they were that much smaller than even Gimli. Of course the Master dwarf wore his armour and his weapons but nevertheless he must have been trained as a warrior. The Hobbits on the other hand had never left the Shire before and therefore were not used to long marches.

  


“I thank you for making that point Boromir of Gondor. I will speak to Gandalf and ask him to take the Hobbits' inabilities to long walks into consideration.” “Hmm.” Was the reply and Aragorn knew immediately that this wasn't the only thing gnawing on the mind of the young Captain of Gondor.

“There is something else bothering you. I can feel it. Come on, you can tell me.” Aragorn encouraged.

But Boromir who had just taken a draw on his pipe blushed and started to cough, the smoke going down the wrong way. He would never confess to the gnawing pain in his chest when he saw the man now sitting next to him interacting with the elf. Their relationship felt so close and intimate. How could he possibly admit to the jealousy he felt when watching them together?  He couldn't admit that he longed for the same intimacy, to say the least. 

Boromir felt his back patted as he coughed away the smoke stinging his throat and nostrils. He turned his bloodshot red face toward the ground, his heart pounding heavily and he prayed that the Ranger would assume the colouring of his face was a result of the coughing. Aragorn stood behind his back still patting away, a smile on his face.  This reaction showed clearly that the interest of the young man lay in a very certain direction. Aragorn could imagine which direction that was but it would not be easy to get the young Gondorian to admit to it. 

Aragorn had wondered before why the Captain reacted so agressively towards Legolas. Every time Legolas came close to him, he could feel the gaze like piercing needles. Several times he had tried to catch that gaze and every time the Gondorian had blushed and looked away as if caught doing something forbidden. In the beginning Aragorn had thought the hatred in the stare was directed at him and that Boromir had taken a fancy towards the elf. Even now he wasn't quite sure. But this reaction? Or was it the pride of being Gondorian which forbade him from admitting to be drawn to the elf. 

“Are you better now?” Aragorn asked and went back to his stone seat. Boromir nodded coughing twice more before taking a deep breath and exhaling. “Yes. Much better. Thank you.” He blushed again. “I think I better stop smoking for now.” He added his voice raw from the coughing attack. Aragorn nodded and sat down again. He too knocked the remainder of the weed out of his pipe. “I borrowed your's from Meriadoc.” He said pointing at the pipe Boromir just had emptied. “He said it was a spare one. Maybe if you ask him tomorrow, he will give it to you, now that you have used it.” Boromir nodded, suddenly feeling intimidated. He felt as if Aragorn had extracted that secret longing from him. The way he looked at him made Boromir blush even more. Could it be that this cunning Ranger had guessed? Was he hiding his emotions so badly? Were his feelings written all over his face?

Legolas must have made quite an impression on him Aragorn mused. Maybe he is the first elf he has had a close encounter with. But then Aragorn reminded himself that Boromir had been quite comfortable during his stay in Rivendell. He had stood up against Elrond and the other elves and had shown no sign of shyness. Respect yes, but no shyness. So it couldn't be that he hadn't encountered elves before. Maybe the fact that Legolas was of a different strain and acted like a Silvan Elf rather than of his Sindarin ancestry? 

  
  
They got up at the same time and slowly walked back to the camp. Both men deep in their own thoughts. As soon as they came closer to the camp they could hear raised voices. Instinctively both reached for and drew their swords making themselves battle ready. They signalled one another and split up one to the right, the other to the left always taking cover behind the trees. 

Aragorn recognised two of the voices quite easily. The first belonged to Legolas and he had never heard the elf so angry. The second voice was Gandalf's obviously desperate to calm the sparring parties.  The third voice could only be that of Gimli he thought. Aragorn stepped out of his hiding place and signalled Boromir to follow him. 

The two stepped into the small clearing to a very strange scene. Legolas and Gimli were having a fierce debate with Gandalf attempting to calm them down. The Hobbits sat on their sleeping rolls and watched wide-eyed. Sam had propped himself up; his left hand stretched straight behind his back. His right hand stroked Frodo's black curls, who lay with his head resting in Sam's lap. Pippin and Merry were huddled together sitting upright, hugging each other, whispering comments and giggling. 

Aragorn increased his strides but before he could reach Legolas Boromir had overtaken him and putting his arms around the elf dragged him aside. So all Aragorn could do was to deal with Gimli.

However his gaze was fixed on the two as he watched Boromir talking to the elf in an agitated fashion. It hurt to see the two together and so he turned his attention to the dwarf. Quite abruptly he asked “What is the meaning of this? I really thought you had a better understanding of our situation, Master Dwarf. This ruckus will have alerted whatever evil is about in these woods. How can we get to our destination unnoticed when you take every opportunity to make our presence known to our enemies?”  The dwarf looked quite shocked; in his rage he had forgotten all about their quest. 

  


On the other side of their camp the conversation taking place was quite similar. “I really thought Elves were smart and cunning. But I must have been mistaken. How else can I explain what made you forget that we should be crossing this country as unobserved as possible?” Boromir addressed the Elf whose countenance had changed from pale white to a pink. “OH.” Was all he was able to reply. “I thought so.” Boromir hissed, “Not the smart asses you like everybody to believe you are.” Anger welled up in Legolas again. “All this would never have happened, had you not stomped off like a spoilt child and forced Estel to go after you.” The elf tried to put the blame on Boromir. 

Before long Gandalf was faced with two fractions in hot debate, close to fighting. He finally lost his temper and pulling on his beard, threw his hat on the ground, stomped his staff and raising his voice boomed like thunder, “SILENCE. ALL OF YOU.” Four heated faces turned towards the wizard whose staff had begun to glow a blueish light. His eyebrows furrowed the Istari stood in the middle of the clearing comanding them to each go their own way. 

  


“Yeah, yeah! You show them, Gandalf.” Came encouraging cries from Pippin and Merry. But they shut up as the wizard turned his face towards them. The Hobbits hurried to crawl back into their sleeping rolls and laid quite still, hardly daring to breath. Never before had they seen Gandalf this angry. And an angry wizard Merry and Pippin had encountered before, even though not as angry as now. So they decided not to take any chance of drawing his attention.

Aragorn left Gimli and walked away back into the forest, Boromir and Legolas both following him with their eyes. The elf was the first to follow but after a few minutes returned and slammed himself down by the fire. Boromir tried to hide his grin; this was a chance to good to miss. Silently he left his bedroll and sneaked away into the forest. However Aragorn was nowhere to be seen. For a split second Boromir wondered whether it would be better to return to camp but then he imagined the expression of triumph on the elf's face and that was something which could not be tolerated.

So he decided to go back to the place by the brook where he had smoked a pipe earlier with Aragorn. When he reached the shore he saw a dark figure sitting on one of the stones they had used as seats. He cleared his voice to make the Ranger aware of his presence, but Aragorn said without turning “Come over Boromir of Gondor; I've been listening to your footsteps for quite some time. Sit down.”

The pebbles under his feet crunched with every step and finally Boromir found himself sitting face to face to the Ranger from the North. 

It took him a while before he had gathered all his courage “You sent the elf back? Why then endure me?” “Have you and Legolas come to an agreement?” was the counter question. “What? I don't understand. Which agreement? And why should I make arrangements with that troublesome elf?” Aragorn was confused “Are you not taken by him then?” Boromir shook his head. 

“Why should I be? He is an impossible creature. Much to selfpossessed for my liking. … Can't stand the bugger.” the last remark was muttered to himself but Aragorn's fine ears had heard the words and caught the resentment. Suddenly he felt light hearted and laughed. “You laugh?” “Yes, because I was wrong and stupid.” Aragorn said.

  


“I don't understand.” Boromir confessed. “I thought,” Aragorn revealed, “that you had taken a liking to our Elf companion. And I can admit now that I didn't liked that idea one bit.” “Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn't.” Boromir replied, “You feared I would take him from you? No thank you. That nasty piece of elf is not for me. You can have him.” A bitter note crept into Boromir's voice. 

“I? But I don't want him, I thought you did!” Aragorn leaned forward taking Boromir's hand “Boromir, do you mean it?...You don't ...?” Now it was the young Gondorian's turn to be confused. “You are not … with him? You were whispering all the time … I thought you … you ...” Aragorn laughed in relief. He pulled Boromir near. “No, don't you see, silly, that I have only eyes for you? For you, ever since you've arrived in Imladris.” Boromir blushed but huddled closer to the man who still held his hand. “And I was so jealous. Could have killed the bloody elf with his know-it-all attitude. I thought you two.... He always addresses you using a special name … and  … and ...” Aragorn wrapped his arm around the young man, pulling him close so that his head rested on his chest. “And?”

“He is always so intimate with you, that I thought that the two of you shared a special bond.” Aragorn shook his head. “If Legolas has a special bond with anybody then it must be with my two brothers.” He said and more felt the sigh that escaped Boromir than heard it.

He held the young man close.  From now on things would be different.  From now on he would enjoy this journey.  He leaned down and his lips searched for and found the mouth of Boromir.

  
  
**The End**


End file.
